Heavy lift crane trucks are widely used for their lifting capacity, strength, and massive build, but they’re also famous for some pretty impressive accidents that sometimes get caught on camera.
One such incident happened recently in Atlanta, Georgia with expensive but fortunately non-fatal results. A massive construction crane that was mounted to a heavy transport truck simply lost its balance, tipped sideways, and sent the end of its extended arm –along with cargo- right through the roof of a warehouse. The truck that the crane was attached to was also pulled nearly onto its side despite having its extendable stabilizing legs fully deployed.
The accident occurred just after 7 p.m. next to (and over) a building located at 311 Whitehall Street in Atlanta. The 120 mobile crane truck in question was parked next to the warehouse at a distance of several dozen feet and had its boom extended over the roof, where a large HVAC unit was in the process of being hooked up for removal.
It was at this point that the weight of the HVAC apparatus simply caused the crane to destabilize and tumble down into the roof, causing the massive truck sustaining it to also pull nearly onto its side.
The boom arm was stopped after it partly smashed into the edge of the building in question but this didn’t stop the boom’s last section from bending out of shape as the end plowed completely through the warehouse roof.
Photos from the inside of the structure show a gaping hole several feet across and over a dozen feet long and torn insulation foam, electrical wires, and metal dangling down to the floor along with the end of the crane arm.
The specific reason for the incident is still under investigation, but crane accidents such as this one or other much more catastrophic incidents have been widely recorded and posted on the internet. Despite their strength, heavy lift cranes can lose balance easily in certain circumstances and with expensive results. Their other crane safety limitations include unstable terrain or being unable to move loads into places where a wide, solid road doesn’t reach.
In many cases, private heavy-lift helicopters are used instead of cranes for increased safety, especially where the terrain makes crane safety extremely tenuous. While heavy-lift helicopters can’t always quite match the load lifting capacity of a massive steel crane, they compensate for this with superior precision, much faster lift-to-drop timeframes, and increased stability.